Etymologically
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Beispiel

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈbaɪ̯ʃpiːl/[1]

Forms

Beispiel n (genitive Beispieles or Beispiels, plural Beispiele)[1] Middle High German had bīspel; the spelling with -spiel appears in late Middle High German, and Luther already wrote beispiel, while Dasypodius, Maaler and Henisch wrote beispil.[2][3] Early New High German also had a rare beispild.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bīspel (“instructive story, parable, proverb”), inherited from Old High German bīspel, a compound from Old High German bī + spel (“story, speech”).[2][5][1] The same West Germanic compound is Old Dutch bīspil (“parable, saying”), Middle Low German bīspēl, Middle Dutch bispel and Old English bīspell.[2][6][7] It meant literally “what is told beside”.[2][6][5]

The second part is Proto-Germanic *spellą (“story, tale, legend”), found in Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻 (spill, “story, fable”), Old Norse spjall, Old English spell, Old Saxon spel and Old High German spel (“speech, tale”), and in English spell and gospel.[2][8][6] Outside Germanic it agrees in form only with Old Armenian առասպել (aṙaspel, “legend, proverb”).[2][8] With a movable /s/ Kluge also connects it, more doubtfully, with Latin appellō (“to address, call upon”).[2] Pfeifer adds Ancient Greek ἀπειλή (apeilḗ, “boast, threat”) and Latvian pelt (“to revile”) and sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to speak loudly, emphatically”), but the revised Grimm dictionary holds that nothing certain can be said about its further origin.[6][7] Kroonen reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *spel(H)-.[8]

The word has nothing to do with Spiel “game”: its vowel was adapted to that word in late Middle High German by folk etymology, as in Kirchspiel.[2][6][5] The modern sense “example, model” is a loan meaning from Latin exemplum, which meant both “parable” and “model”.[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The simple noun spel “speech, statement, story, parable, proverb” is recorded in Old High German from the end of the 8th century, in glosses, Isidor, the Monsee Fragments and Notker.[10][11][12] The compound appears in Old Low Franconian as bispille for Latin parabolam in the Lipsius glosses (9th–10th century), and Kluge dates the German word to the 12th century.[7][2] In Middle High German bīspel meant an instructive story, a parable or fable, or a proverb in figurative language.[9][13]

Semantic evolution

Before 1150 Der arme Hartmann announces that he will tell ein bispelle about a rich man.[7] For the poet der Stricker the fable of the wolf and the lamb was the first of all such tales.[3] The Grimms stress that the old word meant a story, not a model given by an action;[3] Weckherlin still used it in the sense “byword, object of mockery”.[3]

Luther uses it mainly for an instructive fact to be followed or avoided.[6][9] From the 16th century, under the influence of Latin exemplum (see Exempel), the word took on the senses “model, pattern”, as in ein Beispiel geben and sich ein Beispiel nehmen.[6][9][5] The sense “particular case illustrating a general rule” is later.[9] The phrases zum Beispiel and ohne Beispiel are modelled on French par exemple and sans exemple.[6][9] In 1854 Jacob Grimm wrote in the preface of the German dictionary that words need examples, without which their best force would be lost.[9] In Dutch the word died out and was replaced by voorbeeld.[3]

Timeline

  • End of the 8th century – Old High German spel “story” appears in glosses.[10][12]
  • 9th–10th century – Old Low Franconian bispille glosses Latin parabolam.[7]
  • 1077–1081 – Middle High German bīspel appears in the Annolied.[13]
  • Before 1150 – Der arme Hartmann uses bispelle “parable”.[7]
  • 15th century – The form Beispiel appears, and in peispil weis “by way of example”.[2][6]
  • 16th century – The sense “model, pattern” develops under the influence of Latin exemplum.[6][5]
  • End of the 17th century – beispielsweise “for example” appears.[6]
  • Second half of the 18th century – beispiellos “unprecedented” appears.[6]
  • Early 20th century – beispielhaft “exemplary” appears.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An example, a typical case taken to explain or prove something: ein gutes Beispiel für schlechte Planung.[14][1]
  2. A model or pattern to be followed or avoided: ein schlechtes Beispiel.[14][15]
  3. In set phrases: zum Beispiel (abbreviated z.B.) “for example”, ohne Beispiel sein “to be unprecedented”, ein Beispiel geben “to set an example”, sich an jemandem ein Beispiel nehmen “to take someone as a model”, and mit gutem Beispiel vorangehen “to lead by example”.[14][9]

Word family

Usage notes

The proverb schlechte Beispiele verderben gute Sitten “bad examples corrupt good manners” goes back to 1 Corinthians 15:33.[14] Kant distinguished Beispiel from Exempel.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 106
  3. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1394
  4. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  7. ^ a b c d e f Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 4, 814
  8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 8, 724
  11. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 304
  12. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  14. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  15. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org